There are several tips on this page for crafting your model sailboat. There are plenty more to come, feel free to send in some of your own!

__"Bambooms"_________________________________

Bamboo makes excellent spars, strong, lightweight, low cost and easy to find. The skewers that come with your kit have been treated with an acrylic based sealer, to help protect them from water penetration. If you are using skewers that you bought, treat them with any wood stain, clear finish or paint. You don't have to get too fancy about it. A simple treatment can be tung oil, even shoe polish. Don't use toxic wood preservatives.

To rig a sail onto a skewer you will need a small piece of inner tube (supplied in your kit) and pierce it in the centre with a needle or a pushpin. You may also pierce the rubber with a hot paper clip, this seems to prevent the hole from tearing, although usually simple piercing works.

Work the piece of rubber over the end of the skewer, then pull up on the rubber, stretching it until the small hole becomes large enough to slip the sails clew through. Then stretch the hole open again to slip the mainsheet line through. This is easily done if you have a large eye needle. (See mini-marlinspike below)

You can also use a small piece of flexible plastic with a hole bored slightly smaller than the skewers diameter. Rubber may tend to slide out of place more than a plastic fitting, but the rubber is easy to adjust back into place.

The mainsheet slips through the fitting at the sails clew, runs along the boom and can be tied to the boom about a half inch from its end. Here, I recommend cutting a small notch into the boom to preventing the knot from sliding.

Another way, that makes for fine tuning the mainsheet, (good idea when rigging for multiple sails) is to make another fitting at the fore end of the boom, and have the mainsheet run through it as well, plastic works better in this case because of the tighter grip on the line. (see pic above)

Either way, the line continues down the gooseneck and gets firmly pegged down with the mast. The forward end of the boom extends beyond the mast enough to keep it to one side. There should be enough slack where the line runs down the gooseneck that the sail swings side to side easily.

For a gaff rigged sail, the spar is tied to the mast, I use a round turn and double hitch knot because it is easy to tie, and it can be loosened to move up or down the mast easily when it needs to be re-adjusted for reducing sail area.
-An option is to use a ring of polyvinyl tube at the throat and have the line that ties to the spar slip down through the ring.
-Similar to the boom, the end of the spar sits slightly ahead and to one side of the mast. (throat)

For the gaff, the same line that ties the spar to the mast can extend up along the spar and pass under a piece of pierced rubber (or plastic) along with the peak of the sail. This line then continues to the mast head where it is secured.
-If you design a gaff rig that has a peak higher than the mast head, like the one shown, use another fitting on the spar between the throat and the peak of the sail (plastic or rubber) run the line from there to the masthead.

The best way to cut a length of bamboo to size is to snip it, using a good pair of wire cutters.

__boring pilot holes____________________________

Aside from being used to fix things like glasses, inexpensive precision flat head screwdrivers can be used as a mini drill in soft materials.

Sold in sets, they come with a swivel top, I have seen sets for as little as $2.
They are perfect for boring pilot holes in cedar or any wood. You just twist the screwdrivers head right into the wood, the swiveltop makes it easy.

Choose a size of screwdriver slightly smaller in diameter than the skewer (or screw) that you are going to use. You want to have a tight fit around the bamboo spar, and the full depth of a screws threads to bite into wood.

They also bore a neat hole through plastics, and this makes crafting all those fittings and cleats out of plastics easy. The different size tips can be used to produce a perfect size hole.

When boreing through plastic, lay the plastic on a piece of scrap wood or a stack of old newspaper and twist away, score the plastic, bend and slice into a strip, and slice up the strip the same way.

When using bamboo, the end of the spar should be sharpened a bit, this makes slipping the fittings on easy. Where you want to make a fitting stay in place, such as where the boom meets the mast, put a very small notch into the spar, the flexible plastic will snap into the notch.

__The Mini Marlinespike______________________

Marline is twisted two strand line (rope). A marlinespike is a spike-like tool about the length of your hand used to unravel marline for splicing and for undoing knots.

Trying to undo knots in your model rigging line by hand can be a challenge. I recommend using a large eye needle as a mini-marlinespike. Needles made for upolstry, carpets, and other heavy thread use, these short, stout needles have an eye large enough to easily pass rigging line through. And with a more blunt point than the regular sewing needle.

It will have many uses for model crafting aside from helping you to tie and undo knots. It can be used for working lines and sail corner knots through cleats, running line through booms and through mast steps and cleats. It can be used as a scratch awl for scoring deck boards, and for making pilot holes when installing wire fairleads and rails. It will also be useful if your line becomes tangled, the point of the needle is used to pick apart the entangled knots. Also, they are the best tool to use if you want to try to lace on a sail.

They cost less than a dollar. I keep one stored in a plastic container that you get mechanical pencil leads in. Using one can greatly shorten the time it takes to rig more elaborate sailboat designs.

__Accessories Pack____________________________

A waist pouch or "fanny pack" is useful when sailing from both the shore and while in the water.
-Some of the items you may want to carry are a small screwdriver for tightening your rudder screw, an assortment of ballast of different weights, and extra sail clips and some of the gadgets mentioned on this page.
-Store small items in plastic film cans, test these containers to see if they will float when full, just in case they get dropped into the water. Its also a good idea to keep your cash with you in a 'zip-lock' air tight bag, since all your attention will be on your boat, not under your blanket back on the beach.

You probably will not spend much time in water above the waist anyway, if you do, wear the pouch "bandoleer" style over your head and shoulder to keep everything inside dry.

When away on vacations include a small pair of folding scissors, a small utility knife with a retractable blade, a butane lighter, a bit of cellophane tape and a paper clip, an upholstery needle (stash this in a container)a bit of rigging line.. this makes a complete sail making and rigging tool kit!

__Five cent screwdriver_______________________

Here is a pocket screwdriver that will cost you about five cents, its made from a steel washer the same size as a nickel. It is perfect for hand tightening your rudder screw and it will also tighten the screw for the cabin.

All you need is a smooth metal file and a vise, if you have no vise, use a clamp to hold it down firmly on the edge of a workbench. Use the file to smooth down one side of the washer, holding the file at a slight angle. This will leave you with a tapered edge that will fit into the smallest slot screw, and will let you hand tighten some of the largest.

Because it is round, it won't poke a hole in your pocket, plus since it has a hole in the centre it can be placed on a key chain or a string, not only that, you can use it for ballast! Although a brass washer may seem like a good idea, steel is much stronger.
Give it a coat of paint to keep it from rusting, or occasionally rub on a drop of oil.

__Wire fairleads___________________________

You get two long solid brass eye screws with your kit. These are chosen for their quality and length, since they are long enough to pass through and hold down your bowsprit or a boomkin. A small, extra one comes with the Mk II since you will most likely be rigging that model with multiple sails.

You can buy small brass eye screws at well supplied hardware stores, just make shure they are solid brass, brass plated ones will quickly loose their finish and begin to rust and stain your model.

You can make your own using the length of brass wire (supplied with full kit). The ones you make will have a small advantage in that they are completely closed, a line running through it will not work its way out. Your home made ones will also be lighter, and you can make the loop any size you want.

To make a fairlead like the one shown below you will need (side cutting) pliers and a hard round object like a nail andwater resistant glue. The wire is bent around the nail with the two ends crossing over.

Grip onto the two ends of the wire with some pliers as shown. Then, twist the two ends no more than one complete turn. Twisting around more than once may cause the brass to weaken or break.

You then slide the loop off of the nail, and snip off any extra wire where it was twisted (if needed) then snip the wire with at least a full half inch of wire that will be driven into the wood.

Snip the wire at an angle, so the end will have a sharp point. A light scuffing of the wire shaft with sandpaper will also help improve its grip.
-You can drive the wire right into the wood by holding the fairlead with the pliers close to the end of the wire and firmly push the wire in a 16th of an inch (one mm) at a time. If you don't hold the wire close to the end it may bend.
I recommend you buy a small tube of weather resistant, wood glue. And coat the wire with it before you drive it into the wood. Once the wire is driven into the wood avoid twisting or pulling on the fairlead, to "test it out"

Note: your model should be painted or stained first. Glue will soak into bare wood and will not let stain hold and the paint may not stick to the glue.

Yet another way to make a fairlead? You bet! This one requires a good set of needle nose pliers and a steady firm hand.

Use a length of brass wire about an inch and a half long. Drag the ends along a file to give each end a sharp point. Bend the wire in the middle as shown, and firmly grip the wire with the pliers near the end. Push one end of the wire into the wood at a slight angle, a little bit at a time. Then push the other end into the wood in at an opposite angle a short distance away.

The result is a loop of wire coming right out of the deck. The opposing angles give the loop its strength. When the wire is nuddged in to a depth of about a half inch, there is no need for glue.

___Rolling on deck boards____________________

In the past, I have described a method to etch deck boards onto the deck of your model sailboat by dragging the tip of a sharp tool, such as a scratch awl, along a straight edge. This works well enough, but often the tip of what ever tool you use, will dig into, and follow, the direction of the grain. The method I use now eliminates that problem, the tool that saves the day is none other than a pizza slicing wheel! The wheel presses down into the wood fibres and rolls across the grain, as opposed to digging in and following its path. You still need a straight edge (metal ruler) as a guide and a firm hand.

You can layout the board pattern by going right down the centerline starting at the tip of the bow and running right back to the pilot hole at the stern. You don’t need to press down too hard, concentrate more on staying in control, and keeping the boards evenly spaced apart.

The bottom of the hull is not flat, so to avoid having the model rock and move around while you are working on it, place the model on a towel, or something you can fold up under the stern to keep the model steady.

Once the deck boards are all rolled on, the deck surface should be finished to seal all the grooves. The grooves will not only collect water, but allow water to penetrate the wood since it has most likely broken through the acrylic sealant we treat the surface with.

Note: the sealant we use takes paint and most clear top coats, but if you want to use a penetrating semi-transparent wood stain, lightly sand the deck thoroughly first with fine grit sandpaper.

Whatever you use, work the finish down into the groves to get a complete seal.

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